For the first time in thirty years, Bangkok has officially raised taxi fares. We are talking about the minimum cost of the trip – it will be only 40 baht (about 45 hryvnias) instead of 35. The information was officially published in the government’s Royal Gazette – including on the right of information for tourists, as taxi drivers-swindlers are an international scourge. The fare will apply to Bangkok-registered taxis with a maximum of seven seats.
Other details are as follows: Taxis stuck in Bangkok’s notorious traffic jams (moving at speeds below 6km/h) will be capped at 3 baht per minute – an increase from the previous congestion charge of 1.25 baht per a minute Taxis will charge 6.5 baht/km from the second to the 10th kilometer, 7 baht/km from the 11th to the 20th, 8 baht/km from the 21st to the 40th and 8.5 baht/km from the 41st -th to the 60th. Tourists were also told that taxis at Suvarnabhumi Airport and Don Miang Airport will charge an additional 50 baht as usual.
Authorities are confident that more than 80,000 taxi drivers in Bangkok and five surrounding provinces will benefit from the increase in base fares. However, the increase is less than what the taxi associations had demanded, which wanted a minimum fare of 45-50 baht and a taxi surcharge of 5 baht per minute.
At the same time, tourists are warned that there are not so few fraudsters among taxi drivers. And the most common way is a counter that works very quickly.